Goodbye Sun Moon Lake, hello Taichung and River

The morning we checked out of the Hotel Del Lago, it was super foggy, and raining. Apparently this is the weather that is going to follow us for the foreseeable future.

Sadness.

The view however, is amazing still in the fog.

The Pagoda and temples shrouded in fog

The effect was eerie, yet beautiful.

We packed up our luggage for our 11am checkout, then headed to hotel breakfast. Pretty much the same as before, although this time Kitsune convinced me to have a bit of roll cake with him.

After breakfast we checked out and hurried to the bus stop as it was supposed to be leaving in just a few mins. We made it in time, the bus was there and still loading people. There were no loaders which felt strange. Every other time we have taken a bus there was someone who loaded your luggage. This time there was only the driver, and he wanted nothing to do with us. I tried to give him our tickets and he just stared at us. I asked him if we could load our luggage and he just glared and pointed to the loading area. So, ticked, I just said forget it and dragged everything over. There was no visible room, so I made some by shoving things out of the way to fit ours. If he wasn't going to help, then he could deal with other people being upset. Once loaded we got on the bus, the driver once again ignoring our tickets, and sat down. At least this bus was more comfortable than the one we arrived in.

Re-dyed my hair this morning! 

Kitsune messaged River (our Aunt? She is only a few years older than us. From the Chen side of Kitsune's family.) to let her know we were on our way back to Taichung via bus.

She met us at the HSR station, and we took a taxi to her family's home. The hospitality was wonderful, they are such kind people. Kitsune was able to understand and speak pretty well with them, and River was able to translate a good portion when we struggled. We at Lien-Wu, and an amazing purple red Dragon Fruit. I had only seen white dragon fruit before. The color was gorgeous.

We headed out with River and snagged a few different buses until we arrived at a place I can't remember the name of  >.<'  It was a super misty, foggy, windy day. We persevered however and wandered around looking at things, and listening to River tell us about the place.

This is apparently a super popular church that people come there to visit and take pictures. From there we wandered around and ended up at a dairy farm that makes all their own products. They sell raw milk that apparently can't survive more than an hour outside of refrigeration. There was a couple of tourists that checked out after us that River translated the issues they were having. The solution was grab a bunch of cups and drink it all then.

River treated us to some cream buns and coffee from the dairy farm, and we had a quick picnic out in the misty cool. Afterwards we headed to another bus to take us to FengJia Night Market where she has her own little soap shop.

I wish I had thought to grab a few photo's of her shop. She hand crafts all her own products and tries to tailor her products to specific needs and seasons. I can't wait to try the few bars she gave us. Her shop is in Garden Mall, and if you are ever around the area, please check it out! River's soaps. They are awesome. Also in that mall is a coffee shop whose owner is good friends with River. He is an award winning Champion Coffee maker. His coffee is served in bowls as opposed to cups as he prepares it the Aboriginal way. So, go check out River and have some coffee! It is totally worth it.